Kent Wong

     Kent Wong is Director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UCLA, where he teaches Labor Studies and Asian American Studies.

     Kent served as the Founding President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, the first national organization of Asian union members and workers.   He previously was staff attorney for the Service Employees International Union, #660, representing Los Angeles County workers.  Kent also worked as the first staff attorney for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, where he developed programs to serve the needs of Asian American workers.       

     From 2000 – 2002, Kent served as the President of the United Association for Labor Education, a national organization of labor educators from unions and universities.    He also serves on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Worker Education Associations.  Kent has been actively developing international labor exchange programs in the Pacific Rim with China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea.
 
     Kent regularly addresses labor, community, civil rights, university and student conferences throughout the country.  He writes extensively on labor issues, and co-edited a book entitled Teaching for Change:  Popular Education and the Labor Movement.  He has published two other books:  Voices for Justice:  Asian Pacific American Organizers and the New American Labor Movement, which has been translated into Chinese and Japanese, and Voices from the Front Lines:  Organizing Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles, a bilingual English-Spanish publication that is now in its second printing.

     Kent Wong is married to Jai Lee Wong, and they have two sons.